War Room February 3rd
From the desk of Jim Snyder
It has been a very busy week. Since last Friday the Pitt basketball team has beaten Marquette at the Pete and lost to No. 1 ranked Connecticut on the road. Last Saturday Coach Wannstedt had a number of recruits at the basketball game. These weekend games give the football staff a great opportunity to recruit. The “Zoo” gives Pitt a campus-like feel. Pitt needs as many of the weekend games as possible.
Rankings and Ratings
Pitt ended up No. 21 in the Rivals Rankings. Pitt ended up No. 20 on the ESPN rankings (Scout, Inc.). There are two separate services using the Scout named. Scout, Inc. is used by ESPN and ESPN in the process of purchasing Scout, Inc. Curiously their lowest- ranked four players are grayshirt Kevin Hughes, sleeper Greg Romeus, Duquesne’s Elijah Fields and CBA’s McKenzie Mathews. Obviously we do not agree with their assessment of Mathews or Fields. Quite frankly Fields, Mathews, and Joe Thomas could have been ranked higher on the Rivals system. Scout, Inc. gave Pitt credit for punter Dave Brytus who has transferred from Purdue. Rivals does not credit teams for transfers but if they had both Rivals.com and Scout, Inc. would have both had Pitt at No. 20.
Hopefully you had a chance to listen to the AMP piece by Rivals yesterday on the good job Coach Wannstedt has done it landing players from the state of Pennsylvania. It is exactly what he must do to rebuild the football program. It is how Virginia Tech built their program.
If you received Rivals Recruiting Yearbook you know that over the past decade Pennsylvania ranks No. 7 at producing NFL players and, for that matter, college recruits too. It ranks well behind Florida, California, and Texas although they are within shouting distance of Georgia, Ohio, and Louisiana. At the press conference on Wednesday Coach Wannstedt said he did not want people to think were simply taking players from Western Pa. He wants the best players regardless of where they are from and they did reach into Ohio, New York, and Florida. Later that night on Rivals Radio Coach Wannstedt said the demographics in Western Pennsylvania have changed since he went to Pitt. There are fewer people in Western Pa. since the mills closed. He went on to say, however, that despite the smaller numbers football is still very important to people in the region and it still puts out some good players. He basically was saying they must expand beyond Western Pa. because over the long run the numbers are not there to take all of your players from such a small region. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to him. If not a replay is still available.
We would like to give thanks
In the past two weeks Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon and Pitt football coach Dave Wannstedt were both good enough to take time out of their busy schedules to appear on Rivals Radio. Thanks to both of them! They both did a good job. Hope you had a chance to listen to the replay if you missed them live.
Posters and obscenities
Letter of Intent Day was very busy and most of us dropped into bed totally exhausted that night. I took a short break for dinner of probably no more than 30-40 minutes. In that time a poster that frequently hangs out on internet sites covering recruiting had posted some of the most vile and obscene posts you can possibly imagine on one of the Pantherlair free boards.
A couple of years ago one of these self-appointed experts used the internet improperly and was sent away to jail where he belongs. Many of us learned at that time that if the legal authorities grab your computer all of the tracks of where you have been and what you have posted are still there. It is hard evidence. It is the smoking gun.
In recent years our country has shut down many of its mental institutions. Quite frankly this poster belongs in a mental institution where he can get some professional help. If you know this person please council him to get help immediately. As you are aware the federal government is now monitoring e-mails and phone calls. The federal government is also trying to get Google to turn over records of persons that visit pornographic sites. A few are treading on dangerous grounds with these obscenity attacks. It takes some hard work but much of this is traceable. All of us have better things to do than baby-sit immature posters.
Surviving Letter of Intent Day
Rivals.com did a good job keep the computers up and running on Wednesday. There were a couple of glitches that lasted several minutes because of the volume but they soon got things going again. The Pantherlair.com had over a half million page-views on Wednesday and the network had almost 58 million page-views in one day. The tech folks did a good job considering the volume.
Congratulations to Chris
Chris Peak was recently nominated for a Golden Quill award for some freelance work he did this past year. We think Chris is a winner and we hope the judges for this award think so too.
Some more football recruiting
On Letter of intent Day we talked to Coach Maurice Dixon of North Broward Prep. He said that both Michigan and Louisville offered quarterback Dexter Davidson in recent weeks. Davidson is originally from Kentucky and Coach Bobby Patrino made a big pitch asking him for an official visit to the Ville but Dexter held firm with his commitment to Pitt.
The biggest surprise late had to be quarterback Thaddeus Lewis committing to Duke. I would have bet money he was headed to South Florida. I would have lost big time.
We reported some time ago we heard a report that the Pitt coaches had said they did not know if they would land McKenzie Mathews or not but they were positive if someone else got him they knew they were in for a big time recruiting battle. A very nice job fighting off Ohio State, Michigan, Boston College and Syracuse.
This will be the last year that colleges will be able to host combines on their campus. The NCAA has stepped in to stop this practice. As you are aware the Nike Camp has been held at Penn State each year. This is the last year. Hopefully Nike will move it to Pittsburgh. Maybe at one of the local high schools.
Early on many looked at Elijah Fields as a safety. You may recall we reported last summer that Dave Wannstedt told him a practice one day that he would have a bunch of interceptions if he were playing behind Jason Pinkston. Pitt looked at him as a safety at that time. Fields has a ton of interceptions but this may really have to do with having good ball skills. He challenged me several weeks ago for not looking at him as a wide receiver. I think Fields was right. He might have been ranked a little higher if folks had looked at him as a wide receiver earlier in the process.
Hopefully you had a chance to watch the AMP piece on McDevitt’s Aaron Berry. It will help you get to know Berry better. Aaron Berry and quarterback Jeremy Ricker had to step it up a notch this year when LeSean McCoy went down with his ankle injury and they did. The two helped the Crusaders to the state AAAA semi-finals.
As you may be aware running back LeSean McCoy transferred to Milford Academy to get his grades in order. On Letter of Intent Day he announced he was going to Miami (some day). He made the announcement at Milford. The McDevitt coaches were asking us if we knew which school he had picked. Strange.
Basketball recruiting
This past week Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor gave Pitt a verbal commitment. One article quoted him, as saying he wasn’t sure if Pitt made an offer he just knew he wanted to be a Panther. In an article by Justin Young of Rivals Hoops Pryor said his father is in a wheel chair and it would make it difficult for him to travel to see him play if he went away to school. It was a good bit of reporting by Justin Young. Off line Justin told me how impressed he was with Pryor as a person. He is looking forward to watching him this summer on the AAU circuit.
The same day we heard a rumor that Aliquippa’s Herb Pope had committed. Pope said that we had been talking to a Pitt alum. We know who he was talking about and in fact the alum he mentioned sat 7 or 8 seats away from us at the Louisville game. He had a TV with him and kept us Pitt fans up to date on the Steelers-Colts playoff game but that was not our source. It would have been a credible source if we had heard it from him. In any event Herb said at first that it was true but that he simply wanted to have Pitt listed as high in the Rivals database. He said he still might look around a little. At the end of the day we think both Pope and Pryor are a good bet to show up at Pitt some day as long as Jamie Dixon is still the head coach.
A great comment from a sophomore
On Letter of Intent Day we received an e-mail from sophomore Averin Collier from Churchville-Chili High School in the Rochester, New York area. He wanted to inform us that his older brother running back Kevin Collier had in fact signed his Letter of Intent and had faxed it to Pitt. As most of you are aware Averin was at the Pete last Saturday with Kevin. Even though he is just a sophomore Pitt has verbally offered him a scholarship. Averin concluded his email by saying, “HAIL TO PITT!” (caps intended). It has to be a good sign for the Pitt coaching staff when they offer a prospect and he signs his e-mails like that.
The Rumor Mill
We hope you had a chance to read In the Den this week by the Penn State site. The author tried to make the point that Pitt’s chances of landing junior quarterback Pat Bostic from Manheim Twp. may have improved now that Penn State has landed senior quarterback Pat Devlin. Bostic could be ranked in the Rivals Top 100; he is as a junior.
One of our ‘birdies’ heard a rumor at the Pete last weekend that Pat Bostic’s sister is either enrolled at Pitt or will enroll at Pitt. Even better, there is a rumor that his girlfriend may be coming to Pitt. We do not know if the rumor is true or not but we love hearing rumors that a player’s girlfriend is headed to Pitt. You can bet Matt Cavanaugh sure hopes this rumor is true.
A preview of coming attractions
Yesterday we posted that we had articles on three players from Baldwin. We ran the article on Jason Pinkston but held the ones on Justin Hargrove and Cart Kelly who signed with Princeton. It might sound strange that we have covered a Princeton recruit about we a few reasons. First his parents are Pitt fans and subscribe to the Pantherlair. In addition my brother in-law graduated from Pitt but got a doctorate a Princeton so I have a family tie. In addition a lived in Princeton for several years and was a season ticketholder. Princeton has so large an endowment they sell season tickets for $25. My wife and I bought a pair. Anytime the weather was nice and Pitt was not playing we went and watch the Tigers play. Let’s face it any college football game is a good deal if the price is right and at $25 a season ticket it was hard to go wrong.
We also go to see John Thompson III coach at Princeton. He often has a rather quiet style but he certainly has the Georgetown Hoyas on a roll. Georgetown is 15-4 and they have won five in a row including their big win over Duke. It will be another tough game for the Panthers on Sunday.
We have seen Duquesne’s Elijah Fields play as I am sure have many of you. We recently received highlight video of Elijah in action. As you would expect for any skilled player a highlight reel can be lots of fun. As is true of many high school films the video is a little uneven. Let’s hope the editors can clean it up. They are a little backed up with senior video but we could see it today or early next week. You should get a kick out of this one.
Tony Greco has an article this morning on offensive lineman Evan Blankenship from Center High School. He has an offer from Pitt. Evan was at the Pitt-Marquette game last Saturday. One of my colleagues commented that he was the closest thing to Bill Fralic he has seen in street clothes in many years. Check out Evan Blankenship today.
Pitt has a basketball media opportunity this afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow (Saturday) we will have an interview with a Pitt basketball player.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
This post was edited on 2/3 7:43 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
From the desk of Jim Snyder
It has been a very busy week. Since last Friday the Pitt basketball team has beaten Marquette at the Pete and lost to No. 1 ranked Connecticut on the road. Last Saturday Coach Wannstedt had a number of recruits at the basketball game. These weekend games give the football staff a great opportunity to recruit. The “Zoo” gives Pitt a campus-like feel. Pitt needs as many of the weekend games as possible.
Rankings and Ratings
Pitt ended up No. 21 in the Rivals Rankings. Pitt ended up No. 20 on the ESPN rankings (Scout, Inc.). There are two separate services using the Scout named. Scout, Inc. is used by ESPN and ESPN in the process of purchasing Scout, Inc. Curiously their lowest- ranked four players are grayshirt Kevin Hughes, sleeper Greg Romeus, Duquesne’s Elijah Fields and CBA’s McKenzie Mathews. Obviously we do not agree with their assessment of Mathews or Fields. Quite frankly Fields, Mathews, and Joe Thomas could have been ranked higher on the Rivals system. Scout, Inc. gave Pitt credit for punter Dave Brytus who has transferred from Purdue. Rivals does not credit teams for transfers but if they had both Rivals.com and Scout, Inc. would have both had Pitt at No. 20.
Hopefully you had a chance to listen to the AMP piece by Rivals yesterday on the good job Coach Wannstedt has done it landing players from the state of Pennsylvania. It is exactly what he must do to rebuild the football program. It is how Virginia Tech built their program.
If you received Rivals Recruiting Yearbook you know that over the past decade Pennsylvania ranks No. 7 at producing NFL players and, for that matter, college recruits too. It ranks well behind Florida, California, and Texas although they are within shouting distance of Georgia, Ohio, and Louisiana. At the press conference on Wednesday Coach Wannstedt said he did not want people to think were simply taking players from Western Pa. He wants the best players regardless of where they are from and they did reach into Ohio, New York, and Florida. Later that night on Rivals Radio Coach Wannstedt said the demographics in Western Pennsylvania have changed since he went to Pitt. There are fewer people in Western Pa. since the mills closed. He went on to say, however, that despite the smaller numbers football is still very important to people in the region and it still puts out some good players. He basically was saying they must expand beyond Western Pa. because over the long run the numbers are not there to take all of your players from such a small region. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to him. If not a replay is still available.
We would like to give thanks
In the past two weeks Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon and Pitt football coach Dave Wannstedt were both good enough to take time out of their busy schedules to appear on Rivals Radio. Thanks to both of them! They both did a good job. Hope you had a chance to listen to the replay if you missed them live.
Posters and obscenities
Letter of Intent Day was very busy and most of us dropped into bed totally exhausted that night. I took a short break for dinner of probably no more than 30-40 minutes. In that time a poster that frequently hangs out on internet sites covering recruiting had posted some of the most vile and obscene posts you can possibly imagine on one of the Pantherlair free boards.
A couple of years ago one of these self-appointed experts used the internet improperly and was sent away to jail where he belongs. Many of us learned at that time that if the legal authorities grab your computer all of the tracks of where you have been and what you have posted are still there. It is hard evidence. It is the smoking gun.
In recent years our country has shut down many of its mental institutions. Quite frankly this poster belongs in a mental institution where he can get some professional help. If you know this person please council him to get help immediately. As you are aware the federal government is now monitoring e-mails and phone calls. The federal government is also trying to get Google to turn over records of persons that visit pornographic sites. A few are treading on dangerous grounds with these obscenity attacks. It takes some hard work but much of this is traceable. All of us have better things to do than baby-sit immature posters.
Surviving Letter of Intent Day
Rivals.com did a good job keep the computers up and running on Wednesday. There were a couple of glitches that lasted several minutes because of the volume but they soon got things going again. The Pantherlair.com had over a half million page-views on Wednesday and the network had almost 58 million page-views in one day. The tech folks did a good job considering the volume.
Congratulations to Chris
Chris Peak was recently nominated for a Golden Quill award for some freelance work he did this past year. We think Chris is a winner and we hope the judges for this award think so too.
Some more football recruiting
On Letter of intent Day we talked to Coach Maurice Dixon of North Broward Prep. He said that both Michigan and Louisville offered quarterback Dexter Davidson in recent weeks. Davidson is originally from Kentucky and Coach Bobby Patrino made a big pitch asking him for an official visit to the Ville but Dexter held firm with his commitment to Pitt.
The biggest surprise late had to be quarterback Thaddeus Lewis committing to Duke. I would have bet money he was headed to South Florida. I would have lost big time.
We reported some time ago we heard a report that the Pitt coaches had said they did not know if they would land McKenzie Mathews or not but they were positive if someone else got him they knew they were in for a big time recruiting battle. A very nice job fighting off Ohio State, Michigan, Boston College and Syracuse.
This will be the last year that colleges will be able to host combines on their campus. The NCAA has stepped in to stop this practice. As you are aware the Nike Camp has been held at Penn State each year. This is the last year. Hopefully Nike will move it to Pittsburgh. Maybe at one of the local high schools.
Early on many looked at Elijah Fields as a safety. You may recall we reported last summer that Dave Wannstedt told him a practice one day that he would have a bunch of interceptions if he were playing behind Jason Pinkston. Pitt looked at him as a safety at that time. Fields has a ton of interceptions but this may really have to do with having good ball skills. He challenged me several weeks ago for not looking at him as a wide receiver. I think Fields was right. He might have been ranked a little higher if folks had looked at him as a wide receiver earlier in the process.
Hopefully you had a chance to watch the AMP piece on McDevitt’s Aaron Berry. It will help you get to know Berry better. Aaron Berry and quarterback Jeremy Ricker had to step it up a notch this year when LeSean McCoy went down with his ankle injury and they did. The two helped the Crusaders to the state AAAA semi-finals.
As you may be aware running back LeSean McCoy transferred to Milford Academy to get his grades in order. On Letter of Intent Day he announced he was going to Miami (some day). He made the announcement at Milford. The McDevitt coaches were asking us if we knew which school he had picked. Strange.
Basketball recruiting
This past week Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor gave Pitt a verbal commitment. One article quoted him, as saying he wasn’t sure if Pitt made an offer he just knew he wanted to be a Panther. In an article by Justin Young of Rivals Hoops Pryor said his father is in a wheel chair and it would make it difficult for him to travel to see him play if he went away to school. It was a good bit of reporting by Justin Young. Off line Justin told me how impressed he was with Pryor as a person. He is looking forward to watching him this summer on the AAU circuit.
The same day we heard a rumor that Aliquippa’s Herb Pope had committed. Pope said that we had been talking to a Pitt alum. We know who he was talking about and in fact the alum he mentioned sat 7 or 8 seats away from us at the Louisville game. He had a TV with him and kept us Pitt fans up to date on the Steelers-Colts playoff game but that was not our source. It would have been a credible source if we had heard it from him. In any event Herb said at first that it was true but that he simply wanted to have Pitt listed as high in the Rivals database. He said he still might look around a little. At the end of the day we think both Pope and Pryor are a good bet to show up at Pitt some day as long as Jamie Dixon is still the head coach.
A great comment from a sophomore
On Letter of Intent Day we received an e-mail from sophomore Averin Collier from Churchville-Chili High School in the Rochester, New York area. He wanted to inform us that his older brother running back Kevin Collier had in fact signed his Letter of Intent and had faxed it to Pitt. As most of you are aware Averin was at the Pete last Saturday with Kevin. Even though he is just a sophomore Pitt has verbally offered him a scholarship. Averin concluded his email by saying, “HAIL TO PITT!” (caps intended). It has to be a good sign for the Pitt coaching staff when they offer a prospect and he signs his e-mails like that.
The Rumor Mill
We hope you had a chance to read In the Den this week by the Penn State site. The author tried to make the point that Pitt’s chances of landing junior quarterback Pat Bostic from Manheim Twp. may have improved now that Penn State has landed senior quarterback Pat Devlin. Bostic could be ranked in the Rivals Top 100; he is as a junior.
One of our ‘birdies’ heard a rumor at the Pete last weekend that Pat Bostic’s sister is either enrolled at Pitt or will enroll at Pitt. Even better, there is a rumor that his girlfriend may be coming to Pitt. We do not know if the rumor is true or not but we love hearing rumors that a player’s girlfriend is headed to Pitt. You can bet Matt Cavanaugh sure hopes this rumor is true.
A preview of coming attractions
Yesterday we posted that we had articles on three players from Baldwin. We ran the article on Jason Pinkston but held the ones on Justin Hargrove and Cart Kelly who signed with Princeton. It might sound strange that we have covered a Princeton recruit about we a few reasons. First his parents are Pitt fans and subscribe to the Pantherlair. In addition my brother in-law graduated from Pitt but got a doctorate a Princeton so I have a family tie. In addition a lived in Princeton for several years and was a season ticketholder. Princeton has so large an endowment they sell season tickets for $25. My wife and I bought a pair. Anytime the weather was nice and Pitt was not playing we went and watch the Tigers play. Let’s face it any college football game is a good deal if the price is right and at $25 a season ticket it was hard to go wrong.
We also go to see John Thompson III coach at Princeton. He often has a rather quiet style but he certainly has the Georgetown Hoyas on a roll. Georgetown is 15-4 and they have won five in a row including their big win over Duke. It will be another tough game for the Panthers on Sunday.
We have seen Duquesne’s Elijah Fields play as I am sure have many of you. We recently received highlight video of Elijah in action. As you would expect for any skilled player a highlight reel can be lots of fun. As is true of many high school films the video is a little uneven. Let’s hope the editors can clean it up. They are a little backed up with senior video but we could see it today or early next week. You should get a kick out of this one.
Tony Greco has an article this morning on offensive lineman Evan Blankenship from Center High School. He has an offer from Pitt. Evan was at the Pitt-Marquette game last Saturday. One of my colleagues commented that he was the closest thing to Bill Fralic he has seen in street clothes in many years. Check out Evan Blankenship today.
Pitt has a basketball media opportunity this afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow (Saturday) we will have an interview with a Pitt basketball player.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
This post was edited on 2/3 7:43 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
